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Teach Me

“Teach me . . . “

“Teach me your ways, O Lord; make them known to me.” (Psalm 25:4)

I’m back! That’s probably the understatement of the century because this has been a journey like none other I’ve ever experienced. I’m in uncharted waters. I wound up having a quintuple heart bypass. I could share lots of stories, but for now, I think that the most important revelation I can share is that I’m faced with learning how to recover from something that I have no prior experiences or references with which to compare. It is truly a radical learning process!

I went into the surgery with lots of expectations and goals about recovery. I thought to myself (and shared with others), “Oh, I should be able to do this by then and . . .” I was doing my best to plan according to prior experiences of recovery from other illnesses and surgeries. I think it was probably only a few hours after surgery that I realized I was on an entirely different sort of journey. Knowing that I’m a busy person and one who likes to push to accomplish a lot, folks would say things to me like, “Now you know you’re going to have to rest and give your self a chance to heal.” What they didn’t realize was that I was at a place where I was aware that I could do absolutely nothing. I knew that someday I would do things again, but for that moment I couldn’t even wrap my head around doing much of anything except finding a way to lie in the bed or sit in a chair to experience the least amount of pain. I am walking in the unknown with faith that God will truly show me the way. I’m a student again, wondering, asking questions, and trying to take it all in.

I was awake most of last night and sometime during the waking hours it occurred to me that an attitude of learning is so important, especially in relationships. I believe that too often we create hurt in relationships because we assume we know the other person and use our prior knowledge of people to try to understand and explain others, especially those who are radically different from ourselves. Too often when we think of folks who are different from ourselves we make assumptions about them based upon what we assume we know, instead of listening and learning. Our assumptions often lead to judgements, distance, and hurt, instead of understanding and closer relationships.

What if we encountered those we might consider different with a radical desire to learn from them? What if we started not with, “Oh I know you and your kind,” but rather, “I’d like to get to know you?” It’s not an easy process, but one that is possible if we ask God to give us the courage to learn. I pray that God will give me the courage and patience to keep learning. How about you?